Due to the strenuous tasks and hostile environments in which work vehicles, normally referred to as “heavy equipment”, are required to perform, and the fact that such vehicles are normally operated at work site locations remote from the garage or maintenance yard at which the equipment is based, fuels, cooling fluids and certain lubricating resources must be delivered to the work site in order to maintain the life span of the equipment. Equipment of the type often referred to as track vehicles, large rubber tired vehicles, and stationary generators, crushers, etc., may include machinery such as tractors, bulldozers, earthmovers, etc. These types of heavy equipment are normally serviced at the work site by product maintenance and resource vehicles called lube trucks.
Lube trucks typically include an assortment of tanks, pumps, hoses and attaching connections or fittings for dispensing materials, which may include fuel, oils, greases, water, etc. Further, the lube vehicles may include an assortment of tanks and hoses for collecting waste or reclaimable products. The tank sizes often range from 30 to 2000 gallons or more.
Frequently, a plurality of such vehicles are serviced by a single lube truck, and often two or more lube trucks service several pieces of heavy equipment located in the same general area. These operations often result in several people being associated with the lube vehicles servicing several mobile equipment vehicles during one visit to the vehicle work site location. Consequently, it is often difficult to determine whether or not the correct materials (e.g. fuels, oils, greases, water, etc.) are being dispensed in the proper quantities to the correct receptacles. Further, the environments associated with these situations often make it difficult to trace the distributor, as well as keep good records of the amounts of the distributions. It is in many cases also difficult for the personnel, operators, owners and management of the heavy equipment being serviced to identify and keep track of the location and identity number or designation of a particular piece of heavy equipment to which the fluids are dispensed. Although attempts have been made to provide solutions to the problems alluded to, such solutions have to date been ineffective and user unfriendly in that they are difficult or complicated to use. Such systems frequently place expensive and sometimes fragile electronic equipment in the hands of workers uninterested or inadequately trained in the use of such devices. As a consequence, the devices are not used, are misused or even lost or damaged with the result that the intended purpose is frustrated.